By 2029, 2.3 trillion won to be invested to prevent coastal erosion

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Confirms and Announces the 3rd Basic Coastal Maintenance Plan (2020-2029)

Before (left) and after coastal maintenance at Anmok Beach, Gangneung.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The government has decided to invest a total of 2.3 trillion won by 2029 to prevent coastal erosion at 283 coastal sites.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on the 2nd that it will officially announce the "3rd Basic Coastal Maintenance Plan (2020-2029)" containing these details starting from the 3rd.

The Basic Coastal Maintenance Plan is a statutory plan established every 10 years by the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries under the Coastal Management Act. Over the past decade, under the "2nd Basic Coastal Maintenance Plan (2010-2019)," 192 coastal conservation projects and 49 waterfront coastal projects were promoted. The Ministry analyzed the effects on 44 of these sites and found that 64% of the areas showed improved erosion evaluation scores compared to before the projects, indicating an overall contribution to the improvement of coastal erosion.

However, due to climate change and increased coastal activities, coastal erosion continues. As of last year, the proportion of erosion-prone areas among 250 coastal sites, evaluated as severely eroded or at risk, increased by 18 percentage points compared to five years ago. Continuous coastal erosion raises serious concerns about land loss as well as potential damage to lives and property, making it necessary to continuously prepare countermeasures.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries set the goal of the 3rd Basic Coastal Maintenance Plan as "promoting sustainable coastal development through enhanced coastal disaster response capabilities and environmentally friendly space creation," and plans to implement 249 coastal conservation projects and 34 waterfront coastal projects.

For coastal conservation projects, the scope will be expanded to cover not only the damaged areas but also the surrounding regions. Previously, projects were conducted only in the damaged zones. While this approach had short-term effects, it sometimes caused additional erosion in surrounding areas in the long term. The underwater breakwaters (submerged dikes) installed through coastal maintenance projects altered the flow of seawater, affecting the movement of sand along adjacent coasts. Therefore, in the 3rd plan, the project scope will be expanded to cover the entire area influencing the coastline of the target section.

Additionally, large structures installed to prevent coastal erosion (such as underwater breakwaters) will be minimized, and environmentally friendly methods such as sand supply (beach nourishment) and the creation of sand dunes to prevent inundation will be expanded to emphasize marine environment protection.

Furthermore, new methods will be piloted, such as restoring beaches with gravel instead of sand and purchasing land in erosion-vulnerable areas to manage them as buffer zones.

Waterfront coastal projects will be promoted with balanced consideration of regional accessibility and environmental impact. Land reclamation and excessive concrete facility installation will be reduced, while projects harmonizing with nature, such as creating waterfront parks through tree planting and constructing walking trails using palm mats, will be expanded and implemented.

Alongside this, the Ministry plans to digitize all coastal maintenance data and develop and build an integrated coastal maintenance platform incorporating 4th industrial revolution technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. Through this, continuous observation of coastal spatial changes and real-time analysis and prediction of disaster information will enhance the efficiency of coastal management.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.